Staring at Female Colleague’s Breasts not Voyeurism; Court cancels FIR against Senior Executive
The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR and terminated all proceedings against a senior executive who was booked for voyeurism for allegedly staring at a female colleague’s chest.
Voyeurism is watching individuals who are naked, disrobing, or engaged in sexual activity.
The case is more than 10 years old. A female employee made allegations that the senior executive stared at her chest during office meetings. The incident took place in Max Life Insurance Co. Limited.
The April 7, 2015, FIR was lodged by the Borivali police. The victim was working in an insurance company. She said that during work, the senior executive used to insult her, avoid normal eye contact, and instead “stared” at her chest and made inappropriate comments.
When she observed him staring at her chest during a Nov 2014 office meeting, she told her seniors about it. In the meeting, another employee was also present, and she gave her statement as witness. Subsequently, he began finding fault with her work. Both the complainant and witness were issued notices by the company. It threatened to terminate her service.
When she filed a complaint with the company, an Internal Complaints Committee was constituted. The committee conducted an inquiry into the allegations. Upon completion of the inquiry, the Committee submitted its report to the management, exonerating the applicant of the allegations.
The witness clearly stated that the accused stared at the breasts of the woman but still he was exonerated from the allegations.
The matter reached court and after hearing court said: Section 354-C of the Indian Penal Code defines and penalises the offence of voyeurism. A careful reading of the provision shows that the offence is not attracted merely on account of improper behaviour or unwelcome staring. The section requires specific factual elements to be present.
With this, the court quashed the FIR and cancelled all further proceedings of the case.
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